The MESA program at Costa Mesa High is dying and may not be around for future students.

MESA stands for Math Engineering Science Achievement and it was designed to help students who wanted to go to college for a career in math or science.

“MESA is a program that gives us a lot of experience in making things, it’s pretty fun, it’s pretty cool.” Senior Winston Khuu said.

Brian Maclean, another student in the class, said, “It’s a good class, with good kids in it. I’m into building so it’s a good class for me.”

The MESA program started the year off with 31 students and they have now dropped 20.

"I don't want it to die, but it looks like it's slowly dying." Mr. Poveda said when asked about the current state of the MESA program.

The lack of support is due to the fact that students do not have the time to commit to the program. Not only that, but interested students often had scheduling conflicts that restricted many of them from joining the class.

Students become stretched between AP classes, other academies, and sports. Mr. Poveda admitted that even the “veteran” MESA students are not as involved as they need to be. “It’s not that they don’t want to; they’re just very busy.”

Of all the Mesa programs that Mr. Poveda has come into contact with, he admitted that the most successful one was at Century High School. There were many staff members involved in the Century program (about a one to ten ratio), and students willingly came in almost every day to work on projects. The program would bring in guest speakers and do social events, such as an end-of-the-year barbecue. They also took field trips to schools like UC Berkley, Stanford, UC San Diego, and even went on a trip to the opening of the Santa Ana Jail to learn about its engineering and architecture.

There are about 8 freshmen involved in the MESA program and the MESA advisers are hoping that they stay involved and help keep the MESA program going.

"We're both frustrated with things, but we are still having fun," Ms. Ras said when asked about the MESA class.